Interview #21: Karin Celestine
"I have a love of the magical worlds that exist just out of the corner of our eye"
Dear friends,
If you’re new here, my name is Jo and I write The Travelling Artist newsletter, where once a month, I share an interview with an artist I either already know or one I’ve admired from afar. All of the featured artists have inspired me in some way and their work most definitely speaks to me.
I like nothing more than talking ‘shop’ with other artists, hearing how they work, what’s influenced them, their favourite tools, and looking around their workspaces.
Every artist is given a list of questions and they choose which ones and how many they answer.
These are free to read, and if you enjoy them, feel free to share them 😍
This, as with all my Artist interviews, may be too long to read (too many images)in some email clients. If you click on the title, it should pop you out into a browser or the Substack app so you can read in full, uninterrupted.
Karin Celestine
1. Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself and your work, what your primary art form is and how long have you been creating?
My name is Karin Celestine. I am an artist and author, who creates needle-felted animals of charm and character, including the stars of my series of story books for adults and children published with Graffeg.
My joy in the natural world is also reflected in the accessories I make for my sculptures.
I gather materials from walks in nature in the beautiful local landscape in Wales and use them along with clay and copper to create baskets, hats, tea sets, mugs and boats.
Seasonal joyful pieces.
I write picture books and illustrate them with my felted animals photographed in nature.
There is a series of children's books, small stories of kindness with a related craft activity in the back of the book.
Adults love them too.
And then the Tales of the Turning Year Series of 4 books, one for each season. They are aimed at adults but children love them too.
Seasonal folklore, nature-based stories to link you to the land and your inner wildness. For those who pick up pine cones and notice feathers and who know there is a world of wildness behind the hedge in the wild woods.
The Gift Gatherers (spring) has just published in March.
2. Are there particular artists, movements, or cultures that have influenced your work?
I am certainly influenced by the books and art I grew up with.
I am half Swedish and I had John Bauer trolls on my wall, Elsa Beskow stories of King Winter and elves in the woods, The Moomins, Pippi Longstocking. Those stories of creatures just out of sight, that other world of wildness and creatures. I was sure I should have a tail!
3. How would you describe your artistic style and the themes that most inspire your work?
I reside in that liminal world of ‘between’. Our world is so binary, art or science, real or myth, male or female…
I love the inbetween, that is where I am most happy, in myself as a mixed heritage non binary person and in my work combining art and science, and in my worlds I create where real meets fairy tale and folklore.
I have a love of the magical worlds that exist just out of the corner of our eye, the idea that creatures are going about their everyday business, watering their flowers, reading books in the woods.
I have a wish to make people smile, to bring them some joy, some warmth of heart. A reminder that the magical world we inhabited as children is still there if we are quiet of heart and look for it. I grew up with tales of trolls and tomten. I adore folklore and that idea of magic, the clock striking 13, the garden appearing, I like to find magic in the everyday and the other, slightly unusual, often forgotten or overlooked.
I struggled to fit in to the world as a child, I felt more animal or troll than person and not a girl or a boy.
My own world is one where everyone is welcome, whoever and whatever they are... Tinysaurs offer tea to plants that talk, weasels dance, badgers make a mean espresso which is why they are up at night.
Lightbringers steadfastly walk the light to Spring, Smalls post their wishes in the wish boats to sail on the lake of dreams and rabbits collect wishing stars for the blue moon times. Elders watch over us and guide us on our paths.
I am a bit obsessed with everything being natural. I don't use plastic, I make the mugs from clay dug in the woods, gather plants to dye fabric, use plants I find on my walks to weave baskets. They are part of their place
4. Can you describe a typical day when you are working?
I have a little log cabin home office in the garden that I call The Shed.
I light my tiny woodburner, sit quietly with a drink and centre myself for the day.
Running an online business means there is a lot of marketing and admin to do, so much as I would love to sit and make animals all day, there is a lot of time spent on emails, admin and marketing. I usually do that in the morning and then spend the afternoons making animals. I walk my lurcher Lupin every afternoon in the woods and that provides a lot of inspiration for my work.
I also take creatures out with me on each walk so I can photograph them. After the walk, I do some social media and wrap parcels and then try and sneak a bit more making in if I can. I used to work all evening too, but now I am strict and lock up the shed at 6.30pm and that's it for work for the day.
I need to learn to have some more days off too.
5. Can you describe your physical workspace or studio environment and does it influence your creative process?
I work in The Shed. A wooden log cabin in the garden. It is full to the brim of all my beloved objects, trinkets, pictures, nature finds, the animals and oh my goodness everything!
Celestine my great grandmother watches over me and Karin my granny and namesake too.
I love the lineage of ancestors watching over me as I work. I have a tiny little blue woodburner by Anevay stoves that I can cook on. I spend most of my days in the shed and I think I'd happily sell my house and live in the shed if it were a bit bigger. I don't think we need a studio with fancy things, but having postcards or pictures that inspire you, things around you that might spark a thought of oh that mouse could have a bluebell basket…
Jo painted me in my shed which I love so much.
I am in the process of moving house and I won't have a shed in the new place, but a room in the house. I am interested to see how that changes how I work and if it makes a difference. If I miss my shed, I'll have to sell a lot of weasels and build a new one!
6. In what ways does the community or cultural environment around you shape your art?
I am quite an introvert and not very good at making friends and meeting up with people.
My happy place is to hide in my shed with my creatures. I do have a lovely online community though, which I value very much, other artists for support and inspiration, and I have a tribe of chokliteers, a membership club for people who like what I do.
We have a facebook group and discord group and they chat to each other in there. Those conversations sometimes shape what I make because they give me ideas when chatting about what they love.
The natural landscape around me shapes my art completely.
My collections are seasonal, so walking in the landscape and seeing the plants grow and what is in season affects what I make. Lightbringer lantern bearers at mid-winter, baby mice sleeping in the bluebells.
7. What impact do you think current global or local issues have had on your recent work?
My main aim to bring a little joy to people, a safe haven from all that is going on in the world. Sometimes it feels hard to say oh look buy my stuff when so much awfulness is raging, but I think we need to counteract it with beauty and joy and love. Not I"m going to be joyful cos I don't care about those issues, but I will be kind and joyful to counteract it all. We get lost in anger and misery and it doesn't help us or the situation. Making someone smile and feel warm, can help them pass it on to someone else too. Kindness begets kindness! I try to bring a little smile and warmth of heart each day.
On a mundane level, brexit had a huge impact cutting off all my European customers and posting the USA has been fraught at times! Costs just keep rising which is a worry too and I have noticed the cost of living crisis has had an effect on my sales. People are thinking twice before buying and taking longer to buy and the sales of smaller things has dropped. We just have to work harder and harder every month!
8. Can you walk us through your typical creative process, from idea to finished piece?
Oh now I am a little random, in that thoughts pop into my head. I might be eating lunch and suddenly think oooh imagine a badger with a walking stick and a basket telling stories to people in the woods, with things dangling off his backpack and then I dash off to make it straight away because I have no self control! I start with the animal, so I'll make the badger and then get an idea of size and shape of the accessories. Sometimes as they come to life, they start to tell their story and what they might like to have. Sometimes I then have to go out and gather materials in the woods, or I might have some drying in the shed to use.
I'll experiment and sometimes things don't work and I have to think again. I add bits and pieces and see how they look. Try out scarves and colours and small copper charms. I think what charm would a solstice badger wear? They are influenced by the seasons they are in. Most animals I make I kind of know their shape now so I just sit and make them, but if it is a new animal, I research photos and try and find anatomy pictures of the skeleton so I can make a frame to get the shape right. Lots of looking and tweaking. Eventually they appear and then I take them out with me to photograph which is when they really come to life. Sometimes I make little stop motion animations of them too. I use wired armatures so they can be moved and posed. I want people to play with them too, move their legs, or head in a gesture. Have them wave at you at you walk past them, have a bit of fun.
9. How do you balance the demands of creating art with daily life and responsibilities?
I’m lucky that my son is grown up so it is just me and my other half who is pretty self-sufficient and does a lot of the housework, washes the clothes etc.
It can be hard to fit everything in and I tend to batch cook and eat the same meal for a few days.
I now have a grandchild and am trying to find more time in the week so I can spend time with them.
I am of an age when I want to slow down a little, work smarter, not harder. I want to earn enough to live a comfortable life and live it too.
I send the dog to a dog sitter once a week so I can have a long stretch of time to really crack on with work, and relax a little at other times of the week.
There are never enough hours in the day and something usually gives. I try and rotate what that is, so if I haven't had time to read for a while, I might drop the garden and read a bit instead!
10. Have you had any challenges in pursuing a career as an artist, and how have you overcome them?
Sometimes it feels like one long challenge! I sort of created a successful monster when I first started out and it ran away with me and I really didn't know how to rein it in and get properly professional.
I found The Design Trust and did a session with Patricia which was really helpful getting me on track with direction.
I joined their business club which continues to help me navigate all those things that pop up all the time. I learned how to get a brand, logo, update my website, things like SEO all that stuff you don't know you need to know when you start out.
11. What’s next for you, are there any new projects on the horizon?
I have just finished the last book in the current series so I am still promoting that.
The Gift Gatherers - Spring is the fourth of four books for all ages in the Tales of the Turning Year series and follows on from best selling The Lightbringers, The Wish Gatherers and Joy Bringers.
’On the first day of spring, when day and night were equal and the celandines shone as bright as the summer sun, a new one was born.
As is tradition, a message of the birth was to be sent to the Circle of Elders.
Old Shrew knew this was to be his last time as Messenger and, as he was walking to greet the Elders, he remembered all the past springs he had experienced and all the births he had announced.’
A celebration of old and new and of the cycle that binds them.
You might need a tissue.
Most people cry when they read it. (In a good way)
I can do signed and dedicated books from my website
Or you can ask your local bookshop.
Once I've moved house, I'll be sorting my tribe membership for the renewals and then working on some seasonal collections.
You can see my current work for sale and previews of what is coming on my website new collection page.
New Work: https://www.celestineandthehare.com/new-collection
Books: https://www.celestineandthehare.com/books
Email List: https://www.celestineandthehare.com/subscribe
All Links: https://www.celestineandthehare.com/links links to my socials
Karin is, at this very momeent, moving house! I’m delighted to say, after a few sticky weeks with last minute demands, they are moving at last and by the time you read this I hope they’ll be unpacking and settling into their new home
Karin and I first met online many years ago via The Design Trust (mentioned above), but it wasn’t until the winter of 2024 that we met in person, I think I may have invited myself around. It was such an exciting day for me creatively and I wrote this article, which in turn became the inspiration behind this entire series so I have a lot to thank Karin for. You can read that post here:
I’ll be back next month with another artist interview. In the meantime…
Thank you. I need to visit her magical world today. May her new home inspire Karin's continued addition of joy, wonder and magic to our world.
Oh Jo, this is so lovely!
I love Karin's work, and understand so much of what they are saying and feeling. Thanks for bringing this interview to us all x